Love at 70 Below
by Sargerogue
Summary: Bucky and Steve were sent on a mission to watch a group of old SHIELD scientists who were playing with potentially hazardous experiments. When the scientists blow up the Antarctic base, the pair are forced to take shelter in a tent while waiting for extraction. Having given the better supplies to the scientists, the two soldiers battle cold temperatures and boredom.
AN: Don't own the Marvel.

* * *

A mission to Antarctica on his birthday was not Steve Rogers' idea of a good day. In fact, the whole mission was turning into one of the most miserable that he had experienced since he woke up in the 21st Century. Add onto that the fact that he was now stranded in a tent until their extraction team could arrive after the scientists blew up the lab, Steve was ready to destroy a mountain of punching bags when he arrived back in the U.S. The only thing that made it mildly bearable was the fact that Bucky was stuck here with him. If there was one team member that he had to be stranded anywhere with, it was Bucky.

"Why can't we just hike to the Amundsen-Scott Station?" Bucky asked breaking the silence. They had hunkered down in their tent after securing the three scientists in theirs with enough supplies to last until retrieval. "It's only a few hours."

"You and I might make it but those scientists won't. It's -70º Fahrenheit out there, Buck. They'd make it thirty minutes, maybe, and then drop dead. Plus, we can't haul all the supplies that far."

Bucky shifted in his heavy snow gear. Bucky hated waiting around just as much as Steve hated this mission. Not only that, but by the calculations they had made with the heating supplies, Bucky and Steve would run short on their heater a full four hours before extraction was scheduled to arrive. The tents wouldn't fit three normal humans and two super soldiers. The scientists had enough heat to last.

"Next time we have to babysit junior mad SHIELD scientists, it better be on a tropical island," Bucky hissed.

"Agreed."

The pair lapsed back into a familiar silence. Steve shifted around their small tent, which they had tried to insulate further with a few tarps they found and by burying slabs of the station walls around the tent to block out the wind. Reaching for one of the small emergency kits they managed to salvage from the wreckage, he pulled out a high protein bar for himself and a second one for Bucky. He opened both packages before handing the one to his friend; the order was clear to Bucky, eat the food and get the energy in you before you're too cold to move.

Each bite of the protein bar lasted an eternity. The flavor was savored on Steve's tongue as he slowly chewed it into a mush. He swallowed it down and took another slow bite. Across from him, Bucky devoured the bar with earnest. Half the bar disappeared behind his pearly white teeth in the time it took Steve to swallow one bite. When Bucky was done, he stared at Steve who still had half his bar to go. He stared at his friend as he ate the bar, scrutinizing his every move. He had known Steve since they were kids and yet he still couldn't understand him. It frustrated Bucky to no end.

"Really?" he asked as Steve finally swallowed the last bite.

"I was conserving energy."

"You spent more eating that damn thing than I did." He rubbed his human fingers against his chest. "I don't care if Stark is still skittish of me, I'm asking him for a cold weather suit when we get back. We've all been living under the same roof since January, he can get over himself."

"Buck."

"No, Stark Junior has it coming. I mean it. I apologized. I groveled. I let him tinker with the damn arm and he still won't treat me like I'm human."

"He's having trouble coming to terms within himself that he's okay with you being a part of the Avengers and his world. It's not you," Steve insisted. The blond shifted until he sat on one of the mats they had created out of old file folders to help create more insulation. "I still can't believe it's been seven months since we all came back together, since you woke up."

"Time flies when you're saving the world from HYDRA, terrorists, aliens, and corrupt politicians," Bucky joked.

"How's your head doing?" hesitantly Steve asked. "I know Wanda and Vision did their best."

"Stop beating around the bush, Steve." Huffing, he went from his sitting position to a laid out position next to the heater. He let his flesh fingers warm in the air just in front of the vent. "The nightmares are better. Still, it's always there in the back of my mind. There are people that know about me from before. I don't know their faces, not all of them. That's what scares me the most, is that I don't even know who might all be coming for me. I used to think it would just be HYDRA or SHIELD, but now it could be anybody. That terrifies me."

Steve didn't know what to say to that. He knew what that felt like too; those fears had been in the back of his mind for years, since DC those fears had plagued him. Yes, he was a super soldier but he couldn't predict everything that could happen.

"I pulled a gun on the pizza kid the other day," Bucky admitted. "I was reading when he arrived. The kid scared the hell out of me and Stark's AI hadn't thought to tell the kid to stay in the elevator until Wanda got there to pay for the food. I thought he was a spy, like that little gang of Coulson's. Natasha had to calm me down, sang to me. Kid wouldn't stop apologizing. He said he was a Bucky Barnes fan, did reports on me in school. He wouldn't take a tip."

"Buck."

"Saw his hand on the way out. From about mid forearm down it was all prosthetic, the new Stark line that he came up with. Kid lost his hand in the Battle of New York; the AI looked it up for me. I pulled a gun on a kid who survived a warzone. I pulled a gun on a kid because he said, 'What's up, dude?'"

"Bucky, we all have our lapses. I've thrown Sam across a room. I put Tony through the glass in his lab once because of a nightmare. I heard a backfire of an engine one day and skinned Pepper's knees because I forced her to the ground to cover her from gunfire."

"I pulled a gun on a kid!"

"Tony nearly pulled a repulsor on a kid once. Therapy helped him deal with his PTSD. Hell, I've accidently interrupted Natasha before and come face-to-face to a Glock. There is nothing more terrifying that that woman pointing a fully loaded weapon at your face."

They lapsed into silence for a while, Steve sitting along side Bucky and staring at the tent wall. Bucky was staring at the tent ceiling, his eyes unwavering as the thoughts coursed through his head.

"I miss Brooklyn," Bucky whispered. "Becca, Mom, Dad, and your mom, God I miss it."

"So do I."

"Those stupid double dates."

"The girls who would never look at me for the entire date, just stared at you," Steve chuckled. "You wouldn't believe how many of them showed up to shows and tried to see me behind the stage as old friends because of that."

"They actually believed little Steve Rogers grew up to be you?" Bucky snorted.

"Meh, word got around Brooklyn. Plus, I had to clean out our apartment before I went on tour."

"Remember Delores? Obnoxious blonde with bucked teeth? The stepsister of, oh who was it," Bucky groaned, "Carol?"

"Caroline. That was one of the worst dates you ever drug me on. Delores chewed like a cow and had a laugh like a hyena," Steve laughed. "Of course you still got a good night kiss from Caroline when we dropped the girls off."

"Didn't Delores pinch your butt?" Bucky asked curiously. "And you started to walk home. I had to take off after you before you got into any fights."

"The one girl in Brooklyn that ever got friendly with me," Steve laughed.

Quiet came over them again, the cold slowly starting to seep into their bones. Bucky put his gloves on and checked the heater. They had less than an hour of heat left.

"Why haven't you found a nice girl in this century?"

"Not you too," Steve complained. "Natasha has already tried getting me a girlfriend this century. No."

"What about Sharon? That kiss…"

"No. That was a mistake. I forgot who she was for a minute. For a minute, it was Peggy in front of me, not Sharon."

"You're pathetic."

"Shut up! It's not like you're getting any action either," Steve hissed back. "You have half the female recruits falling all over you and you deny them."

"You do the same damn thing you, hypocrite!"

"Well they're not what I'm looking for!"

The silence that followed was so thick that you could have cut it with a knife. Bucky slowly sat up. Steve swallowed shallowly before fumbling with his gloves.

"Steve-."

 _Click. Hiss. Tst-pft._

Both men looked at the heater. The apparatus had shut off completely leaving the two super soldiers alone to battle the cold. Bucky checked his watch.

"Three hours and forty minutes until extraction."

"We need warmth. Get in your sleeping bag. We'll put our bags next to each other."

"Steve."

"The wind has been staying out, we should be okay."

"Steve!" The blond looked up at his longest friend with wide eyes. "We need to conserve body heat. Put my sleeping bag inside of yours. We'll put our coats and snow pants between the layers, give it some extra insulation. Then you and me will share a sleeping bag."

"Buck, we'll never fit."

"We'll fit. It'll be tight but it's better than freezing." _Anything is better than freezing_ went unsaid between them. Between the pair of them, freezing was on subject that they could both relate to. Their quarters at the Avengers base were at a balmy temperature. Bucky kept his eyes locked with Steve. "It'll be just like when we were kids and the heat went out."

"I'm still the little spoon then?"

"I figure we could face each other this time, punk."

"Jerk." Even as he said it, Steve was stripping off his outer jacket. They both stripped off the bulkier clothes they were wearing and, once the sleeping bags were lying inside each other, layered the clothes in.

Bucky slipped into the bag first, the heat enveloping him instantly. Steve slipped inside the tiny opening in the zipper that they had left before shimming down into his spot. Bucky pulled the zipper up all the way and drew the draw strings to closed the face section of the outer part and nearly all the way closed on the second bag to keep the heat in. As he brought his metal arm around Steve from where it had been maneuvering the bags, he found that the snug fit was just like the tight cocoons that he and Steve made when they were younger and had to stay warm. He let his hand rest gently on the small of Steve's back, a slight smile crossing his face.

"Warm?" he asked.

"Not freezing, no," Steve replied. He sighed against Bucky's chest. The two super soldier furnaces would heat the bag for a while, hopefully long enough for evac to arrive.

"So, about earlier."

"Buck."

"No, listen," Bucky insisted. "You said the girls weren't what you were looking for. Well I talked to Natasha about that and she had girls from every walk of life and type. This leads me to conclude one thing: you are currently interested in men. Since you liked Peggy that makes you bisexual, right?"

"Shut up Bucky. Leave it alone."

"Work with me Steve. Am I right?"

"Yes and no."

"Bisexual?"

"Yes."

"So what's your ideal man? Or men? Are you into multiple? What can I do to help you find happiness? I need to know if I'm going to set you up on dates."

"That's enough Bucky."

"Does that mean you have someone in mind? Wilson?"

"What? No, it's not Sam."

"But you just admitted there is someone you want to go on a date with. It's not Barton, he's married. Banner is not your type. You would have already have gone for Stark simply because he is free right now and he has already been known to have a rather lax lifestyle in the past. Um, Rhodey, no, too much like Sam. Don't tell me it's Coulson."

"Bucky would you please quit! I don't want any help in the dating department. I'm perfectly content," Steve insisted.

"You've been moping around since Wanda and Vision hooked up. Who is this guy that has your heart in a twist?"

"It's you damn it!" Steve shouted. The cocky smirk on Bucky's face slowly faded away as Steve huffed into his chest. "It's always been you. Since we were teenagers. I thought with Peggy, I could have the picket fence, the kids, but no. Then you came back into my life."

"Steve."

"God, I wish sometimes I didn't feel like this. You're my best friend! When I'm with you though, nothing can touch me. I can't lose you, Bucky. I can't lose you ever again," Steve mumbled into his chest.

A moment passed. Bucky rubbed his cooler metal hand against Steve's back while slowly bringing his flesh hand up. He brought Steve's head up to look up at him. With a little awkward bending, Bucky captured Steve's lips in his own. When he felt he had taken Steve's breath away, he pulled away.

"Would you quit being a punk and start being my partner instead?" Bucky whispered lowly.

"Yes, God yes."

"Let's see if we can't improve those kissing skills of yours, Rogers," Buck teased gently, letting his hand run though Steve's hair.

* * *

Tony Stark walked up to the tent containing the two super soldiers thirty minutes after the scheduled pick up time. The two soldiers had managed to shelter the scientists well enough that no one heard the jets land through the storm. Evidently, that was also true for the resident super soldiers.

Looking at the tent, he noticed the suspicious lack of a heater running. The scientists had mentioned that that may occur. The two soldiers were huddling for warmth in a sleeping bag by the looks of his scanner. To make the issue simpler, Tony severs the anchor lines and drags the tent to the AvengeJet where Natasha is waiting. As he closes the ramp, a scramble can be heard inside the tent. Natasha walked over to Tony after he removed his armor, her arms weighed down by heated blankets.

Bucky tumbles out the tent first followed by Steve. The pair look rather comical sprawled out on the floor next to each other. Natasha throws the blankets onto them. Both men melt into the heat.

"The scientists are in the other jet," Natasha told them.

"Stark, thermal underwear powered by an arc reactor please. Something that will survive a bullshit mission like this," Bucky whined.

"I'll get right on that Frosty." Tony narrowed his eyes on Steve's neck. "Hey Cap, when did you get a muffler burn?"

"Muffler burn?" Bucky asked. Tony motioned to his neck. Littering Steve's neck were hickeys, fresh hickeys. "Oh, those."

"None of your business Tony."

"We have a bet going," Natasha explained. "He wants to know if he lost."

Bucky grabbed Steve by the front of his shirt and laid claimed to his neck once more. Tony groaned, pulling out his wallet and handing a fifty-dollar bill over to Natasha. She laughed and took a picture of the scene in front of them. She sent the picture off to the rest of the Avengers who would soon have to pay up.

Across the jet, Steve was too busy with Bucky to care about Tony complaining about a lost bet.


End file.
